Language And Gender Flashcards
Apposition
Nick Williams, operations director
Name, then explination. Gives the name power
Power asymmetry - theorist
Fairclough.
One is the power participant, one is less powerful. When you have more power, allowable contributions are different. More power = longer mean length utterance.
Julia Stanley - what was her theory?
Over 220 sexually promiscuous words for women, only 20 for men.
Muriel shulz- what was his theory?
It is not an accident that there are more sexually promiscuous words for women - over time the words associated with women become negative.
Lexical asymmetry
Mister and mistress should have the same meaning, however over time mistress has become sexually promiscuous whereas Mister has remained powerful.
Negative semantic space - theorist?
Julia Stanley. This is when women move to a profession, they aren’t given their own noun, just female equivalents. Eg - doctor, lady doctor.
Marked terms
We can tell the gender from the job title.
Eg. Waiter vs waitress.
‘Ess’ is a suffix added on the end- this is diminutive, why should women have an add on? This is negative semantic space, as theorised by Julia Stanley.
Androcentric language - what is it and who theorised it?
Anne Bodine- there is a bias in english language in favour of males- eg.
MANkind, MAN and wife.
Perguration
A word is downgraded.
The pronoun problem
There is no 3rd person gender neutral pronoun.
What were robin lake offs theories about women’s language?
- They used hedges more - eg sort of, kind of.
- Very polite forms - eg would you mind? I’d appreciate if…
- They use more tag questions - eg you’re going too, aren’t you?
- Speak in italics, more emphasis - eg so, very.
- Use empty adjectives, - eg adorable, lovely
- Use hyper correct grammar and pronunciation
- Have special lexicon- more words for things. Eg - men: blue. Women= Aqua marine, turquoise, duck egg blue.
- Use question intonation is declarative statements.
- Use ‘wh’ imperatives - eg “why don’t you go?”
- Speak less frequently
- Apologise more
- Use modal constructions - eg ‘should be go there?’
- Avoid course language or expletives
- use indirect commands, implicature eg ‘Isn’t it cold in here!’ - meaning shut the fucking window
- use more intensifiers - eg especially, so very, extremely
- Lack a sense of humour, don’t understand the punchline.
Deficit model.
Proposed, perhaps unintentionally, women have a different speech style which is lacking in some way.
Who argued that women’s speech is a result of their social position?
Lake off.
Dominance model.
The theory that in mixed sex conversation, men interrupt more than women. This is proved by Zimmerman and west.
Zimmerman and west - what theory did the prove?
They proved the dominance model, they found that 96% of interruptions during mixed sex conversations were by men. This experiment was perhaps flawed, as only 11 conversations were monitored.
Who theorised that men and women make the same amount of interruptions? And what was the flaw in the study?
Geoffrey Beattie theorised that both genders make the same amount of interruptions, proving Zimmerman and west wrong. However, the survey was only carried out on english university students, who tend to speak in a polite manner.
The difference model - what was it and who theorised it?
Deborah tannen claimed there are 6 key differences between men and women.
1) status vs support.
Men - I drank 20 beers!
Women - do I look fat in this?
2) independence vs intimacy.
Men - will do as they please, not relying on wife.
Women - will ask their husband, make sure they’re okay with any decisions before they go ahead.
3) advice vs understanding.
random bitch - “I feel so ill”
Men - go to the doctors.
Women - oh you poor thing, sit down here.
4) information vs feelings.
Men - meet at 6. Yes?
Women - have a gossip and a chat first
5) orders vs proposals.
Men - we will go here.
Women - how does this sound? What do you think?
6) conflict vs compromise.
Men - I’m not doing that.
Women - we could do this instead?
What was tannens theory about interruptions?
Women cooperatively overlap using back channeling in conversations- man interrupt competitively. The ‘take the floor’
Deborah tannens 6 key differences
difference model
STATUS VS SUPPORT
m - i drank 10 beers!
f - you’re not even fat
INDEPENDENCE VS INTIMACY
m- would just let someone stay
f- would ask husband first
ADVICE VS UNDERSTANDING
i feel so ill!
m- go to the doctors
f- ohhh poor baby
INFORMATION VS FEELINGS
m- 3 min call. meet at 6? yes
f- 3 hour gossip
ORDERS VS PROPOSALS
m- were going here
f- we could go here?
CONFLICT VS COMPROMISE
m- i’m not doing that
f- we could do this instead?
O’barr and Atkins
Lakeoffs theories about women’s talk were displayed by both genders in a powerless situation.
Deborah Cameron theory
women’s marked terms are marked with suffixes such as ‘ette’
this DEVIATION implies that power is in the MALE FORM.
MARY TALBOT 2010
Gender is a social construct. people acquire characteristics that are ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’
TANNEN
REPORT- men, get things done
RAPPORT- women chatting shit
